Deals
Gilead to Buy Pharmasset for $11 Billion to Win in Hepatitis
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Gilead Sciences Inc., the world’s largest maker of HIV medicines, agreed to buy Pharmasset Inc. for about $11 billion, betting that its experimental hepatitis C treatments will lead the next generation of therapies in a market that may reach $20 billion by 2020.
Gilead will pay $137 a share in cash, 89 percent more than the closing price for Pharmasset on Nov. 18, the companies said in a statement today. The purchase, Gilead’s biggest, will reduce the Foster City, California-based company’s earnings through 2014 and then add to profit, the statement said.